Awakened Beauty
by Mystical Authoress
Summary: After a war with the Kirisaki Kingdom, Princess Monica of the Adenauer Kingdom goes and wakes up a friend who had been poisoned. Unfortunately, this friend is actually Sylvan Kirisaki, who will be forced to cope with the war, the loss of his own family and kingdom, and living in the Adenauer Kingdom. Good thing that Monica is around-he'll need that help to get through it all...
1. Awakening

**Author note: I do not own Yakitate! Japan. Nor do I own Sleeping Beauty, which inspired this.**

**Warning: Violence, possible pairings, Kingdom AU, princess!Monica, broken!Meister**

**Constructive Criticism would be great, and I hope that you read, review and enjoy! Thanks! XD**

* * *

**_Awakened Beauty_**

* * *

_1\. Awakening_

* * *

"...Mizuno, why are we doing this again...?"

"Princess, you were the one that said that you wanted to see if this rumour about Prince Sylvan being dead was true! And it's _obviously_ true! Look at him! He's _dead!"_

Princess Monica Adenauer and her bodyguard/advisor Mizuno Azusagawa were both currently staring down at the still form of Prince Sylvan Kirisaki (or as others called him, Meister Kirisaki), whose face was adorned with a beautiful titanium mask. His long, blond hair framed his face perfectly, and his eyes were closed, as if he was sleeping.

The two seeing Sylvan meant that

1\. They were in Prince Sylvan's bedroom

2\. Yes, they were literally staring at him and

3\. Neither one had any idea what to do about it.

Mizuno let out a sigh, pushing a few locks of red hair behind her ear as she spoke. "I wonder why he wears that mask...you know, do you think his face rotted away while he was dead? I wouldn't be surprised.."

Monica half-glared at Mizuno. "Can people rot _that _quickly when they're dead? I don't think so...and I have this feeling that he's still alive."

Mizuno gaped at her._ "Alive?_ What makes you think-"

"Mizuno, he's_ sleeping_, not dead! Can't you hear him breathing?"

There was an awkward moment of silence, before Mizuno spoke up again.

"Uh...yeah, I can..."

"See?" The princess crossed her arms. "You see my point?"

"Yeah. But then, uh..._how_ do we wake him up?"

...A moment of awkward silence passed before Monica realized that Mizuno had a point about _that _part. It was great to see that her friend was not dead, but alive, but it was equally bad that he had been asleep for three months with no one to wake him up. Then again, being in war with Prince Sylvan's sister and father hadn't really been any good, either. Especially now that the Kirisaki Kingdom had basically lost the war, therefore their land being taken by Adenauer Kingdom.

...It was for a good reason to take their kingdom, though. If they hadn't and lost the war, more people would have been suffering under Yuiichi Kirisaki's rule. But that was another story. Right now, they needed to wake up Sylvan.

"Do you think yelling in his ear is going to work?" Mizuno asked.

Monica shook her head quickly. "Mizu, no! We're not damaging his hearing!"

Mizuno gave her a look. "Any other ideas, then? It's not like I have a gong or something to hit with me!"

"Um..." The princess put a hand to her chin, trying to think. "Hm..."

Mizuno then snapped her fingers, apparently having inspiration hit her already with another idea. "Wait, I've got another idea!"

Monica looked up at her. "What is it?"

"Well.." Mizuno crossed her arms as she spoke. "You could always _kiss him."_

Monica just stared at Mizuno.

"Sorry, but...What did you say?"

"Kiss him! It works in the fairytales!" Mizuno responded, waving her arms about. "Geez, don't you think it should work if it works in fairytales!?"

"Mizuno, you're speaking of me kissing someone who's at least_ ten years older than me!_ Are you sure about this!?"

"...Well, what_ else_ am I to suggest? Punch him in the face and hope he wakes up from that?"

Monica winced bit, before looking down at her sleeping friend. "Well...I guess you have a point..."

_This is** not** going to be fun... _

The princess hesitated, standing over Sylvan, before slowly leaning closer to him to kiss him.

"Closer..." Mizuno trailed off quietly.

Monica went closer.

_"Closer..."_

Monica went even closer, until her face was literally milimeter's from his face.

"Come on, kiss him already!"

Before Monica could snap back at Mizuno, the 'dead' (previously sleeping) friend woke up.

_And screamed._

Naturally, Monica screamed back, and the two immediately started slapping at each other with their arms out of panic and shock, flailing about and screaming like rabbits stuck in confined spaces. Mizuno just stared in horror, before she yanked Monica away from Sylvan, who sat up quickly, staring at the two of them.

"Wha...what are you-what are you-" The older man started, but then he stopped, trying to take deep breaths to calm down. He then let out a sigh, glancing down at himself before looking up at the two again. "Monica...Mizuno? What are you two doing in my room...?"

Both girls exchanged glances, before Monica coughed a bit before speaking up.

"Erm...you were poisoned, Sylvan..."

The older man pushed locks of blond hair out of his face, his eyes widening slightly behind his mask. "I...I was?"

The princess nodded. "Yeah...Your sister Sophie did it, and then my kingdom got into a huge war with your father and Sophie. We had to execute them at the end." She felt bad for dumping all this terrible news on her friend, just after he woke up from being poisoned into a very long sleep, but it wasn't like such things could really be hidden from him, especially if it involved his own family.

Sylvan looked a bit saddened by this-Monica expected that to happen, for him to be upset by the poisoning caused by his sister, and then to hear that he was the only Kirisaki left standing in the family. It was a double punch to the stomach, except worse...

Eventually the older man spoke up again. "I'm not...happy about that. I will admit that." He let out a quiet breath, before speaking again. "But...I'm glad that you came back. To help me wake up. So...I give you my thanks for that."

Monica nodded quietly. "I'm just doing what friends have got to do. You know, help each other. I couldn't just leave you alone."

The older man nodded quietly. "So...what now?"

"Well..." Mizuno paused, before speaking up. "We can let you stay at our castle for now, and then we can figure out what to do from there. A lot of people think you're actually dead, but even if they found out if you were alive...I'm not really sure if they'd want to be under the Kirisaki rule, no offense to you or your family..."

Sylvan winced a bit at this. "You have a point. Let's go..."

* * *

The carriage ride there was awkward and silent between the three of them.

Monica had absolutely no idea what to say. She didn't want to hurt Sylvan's feelings any further, or anything like that. She just hoped that he would be okay, that he could cope with all of this bad news flung onto him and such. All she really knew was that she had to be there to support him, her friend. She couldn't let him go through this alone...

Mizuno honestly had no idea what to say, either. She didn't want to make things awkward by telling Sylvan that she was the one who suggested that Monica kiss him to wake him up. That probably wasn't a good idea...

As for Sylvan himself...he was lost in his own thoughts. His sister, his father, gone...and they had been the ones that tried to kill him, too. And now he was living with Monica at her castle. That was nice, that he was with his friend, but of course it wasn't great to wake up and find out that all the rest of his family up and died while he was asleep either.

* * *

"As much as I am grateful for letting me stay here, I can't just freeload off you, your Majesty." Sylvan spoke to Monica's father, bowing. "Please, I need some sort of work, lest I end up driving myself crazy with nothing but my own thoughts..."

"Hm..." The King paused, before speaking. "I'm sure we will be able to find something for you to do...in the meantime, you should rest. I'm sure you might need some time to recover."

"Thank you, sire..." The blond bowed silently, before leaving the room, letting out a sigh.

He just hoped the King could find something for him to do that

1\. Wouldn't hurt anyone by accident

2\. Be something that he could do and

3\. Distract him from his thoughts.

He didn't want to think about his family or the war or the poisoning. He would have none of it. But he knew he had to cope...

Just..._how _was he going to cope with this?

* * *

**Author note: ...(sweatdrop) How did it get so sad? I wanted this to be funny... (sweatdrop) Hopefully next chapter will be a bit nicer than this one. Thanks for reading! **


	2. Look Around

_2\. Look Around_

* * *

It was not easy to try to make conversation with the former Prince.

Heck, it was hard to get him out of the castle. Sylvan practically spent three days just wandering about the castle, and no one could really get him to converse any more than small talk. Monica found this a bit worrying, knowing that the shock of losing his kingdom and family must be hard for him to bear. She had been one of the people in the castle that kept trying to talk to him, even after failing the first try, but he just didn't really seem to respond...

And now this. Monica had been on her way to Sylvan's room when Mizuno gave her some unfortunate information.

"Uh..." Mizuno paused, before speaking. "Sylvan snuck out of the castle."

Monica's eyes widened at this. _"What!?_ Why? How?" She exclaimed. "We have to find him!"

Mizuno blinked at this. "Now?"

"Of course now! Come on, we'll go and get Samurai boy-"

"You mean the knight Suwabara, right?"

"Yes, of course I mean by him! He's the only knight that uses a katana in battle!" Monica grabbed the shorter girl by the wrist, dragging her down the hallway. "Come on!"

Mizuno let out a groan.

_Why do I get thrown into these crazy things again...?_

* * *

The former prince made his way through the town surrounding the castle, looking around quietly.

He didn't really mean to sneak out because he didn't want to be here. No, no, he was...alright with being here, he supposed, it was just that he had to get used to his surroundings. Surely a quick trip around the place wouldn't be that bad, would it...?

Unfortunately for him, as soon as he bumped into someone, that was when things went downhill.

"Hey!" Sylvan felt himself being shoved backwards, and he could have fallen over if he hadn't caught his balance in time. Looking up from staring at the ground, he realized that it was one of the knights that served here at this kingdom. "Watch where you're going." The knight snapped, before stomping away from him. The former noble didn't even get the chance to apologize before the other left.

_Are all knights here so rude...? I hope not..._

He almost bumped into another knight, but he quickly got out of the way, apologizing. The knight, who was walking with two other knights, turned to stare at him closely before he spoke up.

"Hey, isn't he..."

The second of the three knights nodded. "Yeah...it's him. The son of that bastard king that tried to take over this place...he was snoozing the whole time while we were going and destroying the whole kingdom!" The three knights laughed at this, as if it was all some kind of stupid joke.

Sylvan took a deep breath, mustering up any scrap of pride he had left, before speaking. "Excuse me, but I don't appreciate any of this...this slander being spoken of about me, and-"

"Oy, you're not even a noble anymore. Shut up, peasant!" The third knight snapped, shoving him harshly to the ground, sneering at him. "Since when did _you _have any right to command _us_ around? I'm sure we would have some right to beat you for this..."

The former prince's eyes widened out of fear as he tried to back away. This was _not _what he intended to happen...

The three knights laughed, one of them picking him up by the collar. Sylvan tried to struggle, but sleeping for the past months had weakened his original strength, leaving him helpless to their malice.

"How about we teach him a lesson? Right here, right now?"

Before any of them could answer, one of the other two knights was knocked aside by another knight, wielding not the longswords that the regular knights had, but a katana. His armor was shaped differently, too-it seemed to resemble more like a samurai, except there was no helmet and that the armor was more form fitting than bulky. Two dark eyes became glaring slits from underneath the bandanna he wore, and the knight grabbing Sylvan let go of him instantly, whimpering in fear.

"General Suwabara..." Sylvan heard one of the knights squeak. Suwabara said nothing for a moment, still glaring at them and pointing his sword at them, before he finally spoke, his voice rough and harsh in nature.

"How_ pathetic,"_ The samurai-knight snapped, "That you would sink so_ low_ to this. Have you all forgotten to treat the people with respect, as part of your duties as knights?"

"B-but, General," one of the knights started, "The disgraceful mongrel, he-"

_"Shut up."_

That shut up the knight for good. Sylvan just stared, wide eyed, as Suwabara kept talking.

"This man is now living here as one of our people, for the time being, and you will treat with respect as you do with the rest of the people in this kingdom. Is that understood?"

The three knights nodded, all too scared to resist him any further. "Y-yes, sir!" They all quickly fled before their pride as so-called 'knights' could be damaged any further. Suwabara let out a scowl, before helping Sylvan stand.

"Are you alright?"

The former noble nodded quietly. "Erm, yes. Thank you-"

He was greeted with a glare.

"The Princess has been looking for you all day." He muttered quietly. "Don't go scurrying away from the castle without anyone knowing next time."

Sylvan himself was far too scared to say no to this young man. "I-I will...remember...next time. Thank you..."

The two then heard a shout behind them, and the two turned to see an old man yelling at the three knights that had just run away from Sylvan.

_"I OUGHT TO SIMPLY DISMISS YOU FROM YOUR DUTIES AS KNIGHTS IF YOU KEEP ACTING UP IN SUCH A WAY!" _He was yelling, whacking them all with the flat blade of his own katana as the three knights fled, screaming their heads off. _"NEXT TIME YOU MESS UP LIKE THIS, I'M SURE GENERAL SUWABARA MIGHT EVEN CONSIDER EXECUTING YOU LOT!"_

Sylvan blinked a bit at such a sight, and Suwabara paused before speaking.

"If you're wondering who he is, he is my master, and former General of this kingdom's army..."

The former noble nodded quietly, observing Suwabara's Master. The old man really did seem to be similar to Suwabara with all the angry glares and the like towards the knights. "I see...like father, like son..."

"He's not my father."

"I'm sorry..."

The young General merely said nothing in response as the General's Master came up to them with a smile on his face, as if everything had just happened never happened at all.

"I apologize for you having to see that." The General's Master spoke. "The young knights these days...except for Kai, that is, they're all so greedy and selfish, thinking only of themselves instead of others. I do have faith that he will be able to straighten them out, though."

The former noble nodding, bowing to him in respect. "Thank you..."

Before either of the three could say anything else, Princess Monica and Mizuno both rushed over to them.

"That's where you were..." Monica trailed off, lightly hitting Sylvan on the arm with a bag she had been carrying. "Geez, don't go sneaking out of the castle like that! I was worried about you!"

Sylvan winced a bit. "Apologies...I thought I would get used to my surroundings..."

"I could have shown you around! You could have just asked." The princess then smiled at him quietly. "I mean, we're friends, right? We gotta help each other out with stuff like this."

The former noble nodded quietly, smiling back. "True..."

* * *

**Author note: ...And yes, I'm aware I haven't updated this in a while. Oops. XD I hope this chapter made up for it though, and thanks for reading and reviewing so far! XD **


	3. Whiskey

_3\. Whiskey_

Days later, Sylvan was slowly starting to adapt to life around the castle. He still had yet to figure out what to do to keep himself occupied, so out of boredom he recorded the things he did everyday in a blank journal that he had bought during his first trip around the castle's surrounding villages.

...Then again, there wasn't really much to write about besides that first trip around the castle's surrounding villages. Everyday seemed like the same-walk around, have people stare at you, few people would to talk to you, and then eventually the day would be over and you go and get some sleep. That was basically kind of it.

Until today.

Today he was just going for a walk, as per usual, when he bumped into none other than Monica, Kai and Kai's Master, the three apparently having been in deep conversation until he arrived. Before Sylvan could even say anything to greet them with, Monica already spoke up.

"Sylvan, you're going to the bar with Kai and his master."

An awkward silence ensued, before Sylvan spoke up again, unsure if he heard that correctly.

"Pardon me, but...what...?"

Monica gave him a look. "You heard me. Now go and have a good time. You moping around here isn't doing yourself any good!"

"B-but-" He tried to protest. "I don't even drink that often-"

"No buts or excuses! Out!" She pushed Sylvan towards Kai and his Master, who proceeded to drag him away. "Don't come back until you've had a good time, you hear me!?"

"Uh, um, okay..."

He had a bad feeling that getting drunk would not exactly be the best way to help him get better from what had happened in the past couple of months.

But then again, it would keep the Princess happy. Might as well do it for her. Right?

* * *

Sylvan was unsure by now of whether he was tipsy or if he had yet to approach that stage. He had at least three glasses of whiskey on the rocks, Suwabara only had one glass of alcohol because his master forced him to, and Suwabara's Master, well, he was a pretty tough drinker-he had five and he still wasn't tipsy.

"So, Sylvan," Suwabara's Master spoke up after some decent small talk was done between the three of them, "How is life here in the Adenauer Kingdom doing for you?"

Sylvan shrugged a bit. "Fine, I guess. Though I really should think of finding something useful to do..."

The General's Master chuckled a bit at this. "Whether you do anything or not, it appears that the ladies have taken a liking to you." He gestured to some women nearby that were cooing over Sylvan's complexion. Sylvan blushed a bit, shaking his head.

"No, seriously. I can't just let myself become a burden. I should find work, be able to financially support myself..."

The other facepalmed himself. "Just relax for tonight. All drinks are on me."

"Thanks..."

The General's Master then turned to the General himself. "So, Kai, what do you think of the lovely Princess Monica? I bet you've taking a shining to her by now..."

Kai, obviously drunk, seemed to blush a bit of embarrassment, failing to defend himself.

"I-I like her-not in thaaat wayy..."

Meister winced. "Does he always get that smashed drunk whenever you two go to the bar?"

The General's Master nodded. "Pretty much. And then he gets a killer hangover the next morning. Though I really do think he does like the Princess..." He trailed off, snickering a bit.

Maybe getting smashed drunk, Sylvan decided, might actually be a good idea despite suffering a 'killer hangover.'

So, he decided to do just that by ordering some strong alcoholic drink.

"Bartender? Another glass of whiskey, plea-"

He stopped halfway through his sentence as soon as he recognized said bartender.

The raven haired bartender stared back at him, before realizing-

"Wait-"

"You-"

"How-"

"Come over here!" Sylvan promptly grabbed Ryou Kuroyanagi by the wrist and pulled him to the side. "What are you doing here? I thought I lost you!"

Ryou Kuroyanagi had been Sylvan Kirisaki's right hand man, once upon a time. The two got along relatively well, and Kuroyanagi had been dating one of the maids under Sylvan's service, Cathy. Of course, things had changed. Kuroyanagi was no longer his servant, and Sylvan was no longer a prince. The two were on more equal footing now, status-wise.

Kuroyanagi let out a breath before speaking up. "Forgive me for leaving you after your 'death'..."

The other shook his head. "No, it's okay. You wanted to protect your girlfriend Cathy, right? Before the war broke out...did you two travel all the way here?"

Kuroyanagi looked downwards at this, especially at the mention of Cathy. Sylvan blinked a bit, confused.

"What's wrong...?"

"Cathy..." Kuroyanagi gritted his teeth. "She...she died on the way to the Adenauer Kingdom while we were running away. It was illness. I couldn't do anything for her."

Sylvan winced. "And her sister, Satsuki...?"

"Also dead. She was murdered the day before Cathy and I went on our journey to this kingdom..."

The older man looked down.

"I'm sorry..."

Kuroyanagi shook his head.

"No, no, it's not your fault! I mean, you wouldn't know-you've been conked out for who knows how many months..."

That only made him even more sad. Kuroyanagi winced at this.

"Uh...do you want more whiskey?"

The other one shook his head. "I think I'm too sad for whiskey." He muttered quietly.

"Uh..."

The two were awkwardly silent. Then Kuroyanagi thought of something.

"Hey, I know a good place for stargazing. Maybe that'll cheer us both up. You up for it?"

The older man nodded. "Yes."

* * *

The two snuck out of the bar, to the edge of town. There was some ruins of an old tower at the place they arrived at-and the sky above them was perfectly clear, stars twinkling in the sky unlike anything he'd ever seen before. The sky was clearer here than it had been back at the kingdom he used to live at.

Kuroyanagi grinned a bit as he saw Sylvan smiling, looking up at the stars.

"It's nice, isn't it?"

The other nodded. "Yeah."

The two were silent, looking up at the stars, before Sylvan spoke up again.

"Kuroyanagi?"

The other turned to face him.

"Yes?"

"...I think I'd take this over whiskey any day."

Kuroyanagi chuckled a bit at this.

"Same with me."


End file.
